I'm tempted to watch this for WRC, but I can't really tell what his role is in this drama. Can someone give me a sense of his character's role without major spoilers?
Kang Sae Byeok was my favourite character and I realized today that some of my favourite parts of this drama reminded me a bit of My Mister / Lee Ji Ahn. I would've loved a Lee Ji Ahn style ending for her, but I guess that wouldn't fit the overall tone of this drama.
This drama is difficult to rate because enjoyment and re-watchability are usually the two biggest factors for my ratings. This drama was not enjoyable to watch and I don't think I'll ever re-watch it. It was painful and like the opposite of self-care. But that's mostly due to the subject matter, which inherently shouldn't be enjoyable to watch. The acting was excellent, and the stories presented are important and moving. Overall, worth watching but definitely not comfortable to watch.
It looks like only the first six minutes of episodes 6 - 22 are available to non-VIPs right now. The rest of those episodes are only available to VIPs?
Here's the thing. I found one third of this drama to be really uncomfortable / bad and one third to be filler / boring. But then the remaining third is so incredibly warm and sweet with such good chemistry. I've come back and re-watched those parts many, many times.
It's a shame about the other parts. If the writers had made a few different choices, the leads clearly had the potential to make an incredible drama.
The reason why the FL don’t make any outstanding contribution is due to her age. In the novel she enter the…
I'm planning to have a look at viewers' comments after it finishes airing to decide whether to watch it or not. Are you watching it now? Does the FL have more opportunities to use her talents?
The reason why the FL don’t make any outstanding contribution is due to her age. In the novel she enter the…
I'm afraid I don't agree. I'm not saying I think a real life 7 - 17 year old who doesn't make a contribution to single-handedly save her country is lame. I'm saying this character, who is supposed to be the main character of the whole (fictional) drama, was smart, observant, well-read, and surrounded by talented people who could teach her additional skills, but the narrative rarely capitalizes on that to give her opportunities to be useful and I found that to be disappointing.
Two of the ML's other female disciples began fighting on the battlefield with him when they were the FL's age. In the end, the Princess chooses to enter into a political marriage in order to prevent war with the neighbouring kingdom. The story clearly shows that women in that time and place (and fictional setting) that were the FL's age or younger or of the same status or higher could make meaningful contributions to the nation.
The FL herself has an impromptu debate with a dozen young scholars and "wins", which demonstrates that all her reading hasn't gone to waste. But all that knowledge is rarely put to use.
One of her best moments, IMO, was when she suggested to the foreign Emperor that she would provide half the books in her dowry as a gift to make up for their incursion into his territory. I would've liked to see more moments like that, and it made sense for someone her age and with her status to do it.
After the young Emperor's death, the FL's lie shows that she is intelligent and able to make sharp political calculations on her feet, but she is quickly cut off and never given more opportunities like that one. They could've done so much more with that. It was one of her best moments and I was really disappointed that it was cut so short.
When the FL takes her soldiers to aid a besieged city, she arrives and goes to inspect the city's defences... and then doesn't do anything. It was odd that the narrative made it seem like she was going to provide some helpful insight and then not follow up on that. At that point she had lived with soldiers and read nearly the entire contents of a general's personal library. I don't think it would be totally crazy to give her a narrative arc where she was able to provide some help beyond agreeing to let other people (the soldiers escorting her) help fight to defend the city.
They also could've done more with the FL teaching the child Emperor, discussing plans or principles with the ML, or even just have her find out information that other characters wouldn't be in a position to find out because she's left behind when everyone else goes to battle. The fact that she noticed all the monks at the temple were fake was a sign that she could be perceptive. It's not difficult to think of ways where the writers could've put those same skills to use in a slightly different and more helpful context.
Regarding your comment about the FL's memory, the drama includes many scenes that cover events where the FL wasn't even present. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to include more scenes where the FL was being helpful, especially if the same scenes involved her bonding with other characters or moving the plot forward.
Sorry this has turned into sleep deprived rambling. The TL;DR point is that I felt like we got a few glimpses of the FL's potential but the narrative didn't capitalize on it and I thought that was disappointing.
My criticism is very, very limited. There were a few instances where the ML's territorialness / possesiveness crossed the line a bit and made me uncomfortable. There were also a few instances where the drama really focused on age and weight, and a few instances where the parents reaction to the young FL dressing the young ML up in girls clothes was transphobic / close minded about gender (yes, unfortunately none of these things are uncommon in asian dramas). There was also one scene at a concert that was a bit underwhelming.
And that's it. That's pretty much the full extent of my criticism. Everything else was so much fun to watch, I watched it all in one day. It's one of those dramas where it's so easy to just keep clicking "next episode" again and again.
He Yu did an incredible job of conveying the ML's feelings. It was so palpable and apparent, and the leads' chemistry builds on it really nicely. The childhood / family dynamics are really sweet, especially as the drama progresses and we get to see some of the moments that really strengthened and defined the leads' relationship when they were young.
This drama is going in my top 10 and might actually be my favourite drama of 2021 so far.
everyone has their own views on a drama, you are surprised by the current rating, on the contrary I feel the rating…
I agree, everyone has their own taste and reasons for rating dramas the way they do.
I'm surprised by the rating because MDLers overall tend to complain about sad endings and to give dramas with tragic endings like this lower ratings, but of course there are exceptions.
I also agree that skinship isn't necessary for a great drama, and bad skinship can be worse than no skinship. I have only ever given two dramas 10/10. One of them is the Princess Wei Young, which has very little skinship and a bittersweet ending. But I found the romance and the ending in that drama to both be extremely satisfying. That said, I usually find great skinship to be very satisfying, so if a drama has it, it's a major plus for me.
OaO had a lot going for it, but ultimately it left me feeling disappointed. As mtzmtz pointed out, perhaps FaE will make up for it.
There is a sequel to this drama which is currently airing. The sequel is called Forever and Ever.One and Only…
Fair point. I'm planning to wait until it finishes airing and I can get a sense of viewers' feedback to decide whether to watch it. If there's more skinship / satisfying moments in FaE perhaps it will make up for the frustrating parts of OaO.
I can only give this drama 7/10. I liked most of the main characters, including the main couple. But the lack of skinship, lack of a happy ending or at least a more romantic ending (like the Princess Wei Young, for example) for the main couple and everyone else was depressing...
Plus there were so many sacrifices and it didn't really feel like they were worth it. So much effort was put into avoiding turmoil that would cause the people of the nation to suffer, and in the end they still had to deal with years of war and internal conflict anyway and ultimately another child Emperor. They could've at least shown us moments where he followed Shiyi's teachings of putting the people first, but they didn't. The villains only died after inflicting great suffering, and they didn't show any of the good guys having happy marriages or lives. As Shiyi said "...and for what?" It all made for so few moments of satisfaction. I can't rate this higher and wouldn't recommend this to others as a drama worth their time.
I also felt that another weakness of the story was Shiyi's character. I just wish she would've contributed a bit more. I won'tsay that she contributed nothing. She had a few brief moments where she did contribute something. But each time it seemed like the story line was finally giving her something important to do, it ended up being much less than I hoped for.
The whole ending also caught me off guard. I wasn't at all fussed when the Prince died because, given the high rating, I thought for sure he had just faked his death and would reunite with Shiyi later. Same thing when Shiyi was walking up to the wall. I thought the Prince was going to reappear. If they had died with each other or for each other it would be different. I don't mind sad endings when they're still romantic or meaningful, but this one was so unsatisfying. I have to say I'm surprised that this drama has such a high rating.
3 
1 
1 
It's a shame about the other parts. If the writers had made a few different choices, the leads clearly had the potential to make an incredible drama.
Two of the ML's other female disciples began fighting on the battlefield with him when they were the FL's age. In the end, the Princess chooses to enter into a political marriage in order to prevent war with the neighbouring kingdom. The story clearly shows that women in that time and place (and fictional setting) that were the FL's age or younger or of the same status or higher could make meaningful contributions to the nation.
The FL herself has an impromptu debate with a dozen young scholars and "wins", which demonstrates that all her reading hasn't gone to waste. But all that knowledge is rarely put to use.
One of her best moments, IMO, was when she suggested to the foreign Emperor that she would provide half the books in her dowry as a gift to make up for their incursion into his territory. I would've liked to see more moments like that, and it made sense for someone her age and with her status to do it.
After the young Emperor's death, the FL's lie shows that she is intelligent and able to make sharp political calculations on her feet, but she is quickly cut off and never given more opportunities like that one. They could've done so much more with that. It was one of her best moments and I was really disappointed that it was cut so short.
When the FL takes her soldiers to aid a besieged city, she arrives and goes to inspect the city's defences... and then doesn't do anything. It was odd that the narrative made it seem like she was going to provide some helpful insight and then not follow up on that. At that point she had lived with soldiers and read nearly the entire contents of a general's personal library. I don't think it would be totally crazy to give her a narrative arc where she was able to provide some help beyond agreeing to let other people (the soldiers escorting her) help fight to defend the city.
They also could've done more with the FL teaching the child Emperor, discussing plans or principles with the ML, or even just have her find out information that other characters wouldn't be in a position to find out because she's left behind when everyone else goes to battle. The fact that she noticed all the monks at the temple were fake was a sign that she could be perceptive. It's not difficult to think of ways where the writers could've put those same skills to use in a slightly different and more helpful context.
Regarding your comment about the FL's memory, the drama includes many scenes that cover events where the FL wasn't even present. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to include more scenes where the FL was being helpful, especially if the same scenes involved her bonding with other characters or moving the plot forward.
Sorry this has turned into sleep deprived rambling. The TL;DR point is that I felt like we got a few glimpses of the FL's potential but the narrative didn't capitalize on it and I thought that was disappointing.
And that's it. That's pretty much the full extent of my criticism. Everything else was so much fun to watch, I watched it all in one day. It's one of those dramas where it's so easy to just keep clicking "next episode" again and again.
He Yu did an incredible job of conveying the ML's feelings. It was so palpable and apparent, and the leads' chemistry builds on it really nicely. The childhood / family dynamics are really sweet, especially as the drama progresses and we get to see some of the moments that really strengthened and defined the leads' relationship when they were young.
This drama is going in my top 10 and might actually be my favourite drama of 2021 so far.
I'm surprised by the rating because MDLers overall tend to complain about sad endings and to give dramas with tragic endings like this lower ratings, but of course there are exceptions.
I also agree that skinship isn't necessary for a great drama, and bad skinship can be worse than no skinship. I have only ever given two dramas 10/10. One of them is the Princess Wei Young, which has very little skinship and a bittersweet ending. But I found the romance and the ending in that drama to both be extremely satisfying. That said, I usually find great skinship to be very satisfying, so if a drama has it, it's a major plus for me.
OaO had a lot going for it, but ultimately it left me feeling disappointed. As mtzmtz pointed out, perhaps FaE will make up for it.
Plus there were so many sacrifices and it didn't really feel like they were worth it. So much effort was put into avoiding turmoil that would cause the people of the nation to suffer, and in the end they still had to deal with years of war and internal conflict anyway and ultimately another child Emperor. They could've at least shown us moments where he followed Shiyi's teachings of putting the people first, but they didn't. The villains only died after inflicting great suffering, and they didn't show any of the good guys having happy marriages or lives. As Shiyi said "...and for what?" It all made for so few moments of satisfaction. I can't rate this higher and wouldn't recommend this to others as a drama worth their time.
I also felt that another weakness of the story was Shiyi's character. I just wish she would've contributed a bit more. I won'tsay that she contributed nothing. She had a few brief moments where she did contribute something. But each time it seemed like the story line was finally giving her something important to do, it ended up being much less than I hoped for.
The whole ending also caught me off guard. I wasn't at all fussed when the Prince died because, given the high rating, I thought for sure he had just faked his death and would reunite with Shiyi later. Same thing when Shiyi was walking up to the wall. I thought the Prince was going to reappear. If they had died with each other or for each other it would be different. I don't mind sad endings when they're still romantic or meaningful, but this one was so unsatisfying. I have to say I'm surprised that this drama has such a high rating.